We have done a lot of driving on this crazy adventure this past year and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. The drive on the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver up to Whistler is one of the most beautiful drives we have done, and if you ever get a chance to travel that road, I highly recommend it. Eric and I took turns driving this time, and whenever I was driving I was torn between wanting to turn my head to look at the amazing mountains and water, and wanting to watch the road so we didn’t go veering off the highway. Luckily we made it safe and sound and were able to stay in the area for almost two weeks, so we got our fill of the beautiful landscape.
Our first three nights we stayed at a little Provincial Park called Porteau Cove. It is apparently a very popular place and hard to get a reservation, so we were lucky to get those three nights. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the park did not have water hook ups at each sight, and we had no fresh water in our holding tank. My clever husband solved that problem with buckets, hose and a ladder. We filled up some buckets at the nearby water tap and then carted them over to our trailer where we hoisted them up on a ladder and Eric got the siphon going into our holding tank. Pretty impressive!
The park was right on a rocky beach with amazing towering mountains just across the lake from us. It was absolutely beautiful. The kids loved the driftwood lining the shore and had tons of fun climbing all the way down the drifwood to the other end of the beach.
There was no shortage of amazing places to go for a hike while we were here. We did a little bit of hiking at Muir Provincial Park and also went to see Shannon Falls. The falls were beautiful and had a cute little rainbow at the bottom.
After our three nights at Porteau Cove, we drove North a bit farther to Squamish and stayed at a park there for a week. On the weekend we decided to go for a ride on the Sea to Sky Gondola. I made the mistake of telling Haydn on Saturday morning that we were going to go on a gondola ride later in the day. He was not very excited about it and decided he didn’t want to go and would just stay home. Ever since we went to Universal Studios and he went on a couple of rides that he didn’t like, he has been a bit scared of heights. We had been on a little gondola/tram ride in Portland though and he loved it, so after a lot of talking and convincing and a little bit of bribery, he agreed to go. It was amazing, and Haydn and the rest of us loved every minute of it. At the top, they had a hiking trail, a suspension bridge and amazing views as far as you could see. We spent some time exploring and then rode the gondola back down to the bottom.
We spent one of our days driving up to the town of Whistler and doing some sight-seeing there. We walked around the Olympic Village and the kids spent some time playing on the playground. We also went on a hike to Lost Lake {we found it} where there we lots of other people who had found the lake as well. I didn’t pack the kids bathing suits, but they were happy to just wade in a little bit and splash around. I think my favourite part of the day was the amazing views as we were driving there and back.
It rained quite a bit while we were in Squamish, but we did manage to get out to Alice Lake for a bit of a hike and some fun in the water. We bought one of those cheap blow up boats from Wal-Mart and the kids took turns trying to figure out how to row it around the lake. Eric had to jump in the boat for a minute to show them how it was done, even though he just might have been over the weight limit for the boat! We had an amazing time in Squamish and I really was sad to leave knowing I might not see those mountain views again. It is definitely a place I want to go back to!
